For more than half a century after 1910, an exceptionally large apple orchard covered these hills around Mesa. An eight-mile wooden flume brought water to these slopes. Chicago and other distant investors bought ten-acre shares in an orchard company to pay for this expensive, 1,500acre project. A town for 50 orchard workers was built here, and a 3 1/2-mile gravity tram hauled apples to a railroad siding below Mesa. This ambitious operation lasted until 1967.